E.U. Nations Disagree Over Refugee Plan for Libya

By Daniel M. Austin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Boat of Refugees docks in Lampedusa, Italy on February 21. (Photo courtesy of AFP).
Boat of refugees docks in Lampedusa, Italy on February 21. (Photo courtesy of AFP).

BRUSSELS, Belgium – As violence and revolution continues to rattle nations throughout North Africa, European Union (E.U.) members disagree on how to respond to the crisis.  In particular, there is wide disagreement on how to deal with the prospect of millions of North African refugees setting sail for southern Europe.  The Italian government, in particular,  has been urging other E.U. members to help find a solution to this looming crisis.

On Thursday, E.U. members Italy, Spain, France, Cyprus, Malta and Greece presented a joint proposal calling for a common asylum system to be in place by 2012.  The proposal was presented during a meeting of E.U. interior ministers in Brussels.  The plan also calls for dispersing the asylum seekers around all of Europe and not simply allowing the refugees to stay in the countries that ring the Mediterranean sea.  The Spanish Interior Minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba echoed this sentiment when he claimed that “Italy was only the door of Europe”.  Along with establishing this common asylum system, the proposal calls for funding which will be used to help nations like Italy process the refugees that arrive on their shores.

The Italian government and Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni have been sounding the alarm about a potential refugee crisis that could hit Europe.  Mr. Maroni claims that as many as a million and a half Libyan refugees could seek asylum in Europe.  His belief is that E.U. members should deal with this problem collectively. Recent reports suggest that after this proposal was introduced, several E.U. members were still hesitant about providing assistance.

The refugees that are sailing to southern Europe include people who are seeking a better economic situation as well as political refugees.  The political refugees are especially important because the European Union has certain obligations related to human rights agreements which require the E.U. to identify and accept these people.

This migration of both political and economic refugees is also being monitored by the United Nations.  Specifically, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has appealed to E.U. members to help deal with the potential wave of refugees related to the fighting in Libya.  In addition to those displaced by the recent fighting in Libya, Frontex, the E.U.’s border protection agency, estimates that between 750,000 and 1.5 million additional economic refugees are in Libya waiting to make passage to Europe.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Europe divided over Italy’s warnings of Libya exodus – 25 February 2011

BBC – EU urged to share asylum burden amid N Africa turmoil – 25 February 2011

THE GUARDIAN – Is EU serious about supporting human rights across north Africa? – 25 February 2011

VOICE OF AMERICA – Libya Unrest Sparks Migrant Debate in the EU – 24 February 2011

U.S. Firm to Help Fight Colombian Warlords

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia—Colombia has been waging war against powerful drug warlords for many years.  The warlords have been working with relative impunity, frightening many civilians and frustrating government forces.  Now a U.S. firm has jumped on board to help Colombia in its anti-narcotics campaign.

ManTech International Corp. has received a $6.2 million contract to help fight drug warlords who operate between South, Central and North America, trafficking narcotics.  The U.S. firm is a provider of new technologies that deal with mission-critical national security programs.  ManTech has said they plan on operating in Colombia after receiving a task order in line with a Strategic Services Sourcing prime contract.  The multimillion dollar award will allow the mission to operate for at least 12 months, with an option to be extended for another two years.

ManTech intends to provide a bilingual team to work on communications to U.S. air assets that battle narcotics trafficking in Colombian air space.  The firm said the team will help plan air operations and support the U.S. Military Group Colombia with technical and security problems.  ManTech’s strategies have suggested that their operations in Colombia will be diversified.

Louis Addeo, president and chief operating officer of ManTech’s Technical Services Group said, “We are proud to be selected to play a part in the U.S. counter-narcotics mission.  Colombia is a prominent positioning point to battle the illegal drug trade that enters the United States.”  Addeo added that the company’s “extensive experience supporting U.S. military forces overseas” would help it be successful in its mission.

The United States has been aiding the Colombian government in its fight against traffickers who bring illegal drugs into richer areas of the Western Hemisphere.  The U.S. has spent tens of millions of dollars on these endeavors; yet the paramilitary drug gangs have so far been able to expertly use their acquired funds to counter government forces.

Drug lords living and working in Colombia have been powerful enough to command entire regions both within and outside of the country.  They have also been known to rule over towns and villages, run their own air strips, and keep informers who work in a variety of public and private sectors.

On Thursday, the United Nations reported that Colombian gangs drove a 40% increase in massacres last year, murdering human rights defenders, public officials, and civilians.  Christian Salazar, a U.N. representative, said, “These groups have the power to corrupt and infiltrate the state [and] are a strong threat to the rule of law.”

For more information, please see:

UPI-U.S. firm joins Colombia anti-narcotics operation-24 February 2011

Reuters-Colombia crime gangs spur more massacres in ’10: U.N.-24 February 2011

Colombia Reports-ManTech wins $6.2M contract to combat Colombian narco-trafficking-23 February 2011

North Korean Protesters demand food and electricity


By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – Scores of people caused unrest in Yongchon, North Pyongan Province in North Korea by shouting, “We can’t live! Give us fire [electricity] and rice!”

The event occurred on February 14, two days before leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday, when people fashioned makeshift megaphones out of newspapers and shouted those words.

“At first, there were only one or two people, but as time went by more and more came out of their houses and joined in the shouting,” the source added.

The State Security Department investigated the incident but was unable to identify the people who initiated the commotion when they met with a wall of silence.

“When such an incident took place in the past, people used to report their neighbors to the security forces, but now they’re covering for each other,” the source said.

Such demonstrations are extremely rare in repressive North Korea where information is tightly controlled by the state and people have no access to outside world. But as the regime staggers under international sanctions and failure of currency reform, people are showing signs of discontent.

“Discontent erupted because the regime cut off electricity that had been supplied to them only a few hours a day, and they had hard time putting food on the table due to soaring rice prices,” said one refugee.

In this particular case, the already infrequent electricity supplies were said to be diverted to the capital Pyongyang to light up the night there to mark Kim’s birthday, the paper said.

For two decades, since the collapse of a public distribution system that supplied food rations, Kim Jong Il’s government has neglected to care for its people. In the early and mid-1990s, an estimated 2 million died in a famine.

Despite these signs of people’s anger, analysts, however, doubt the possibility of a popular revolt similar to those in North Africa and the Middle East.

“I don’t see anything in civil society that would lead to a kind of Egyptian phenomenon,” said Stephan Haggard, Professor at University of California San diego, at a Washington presentation last month.

For more information, please see:

The Chosunilbo – N.Korean Protesters Demand Food and Electricity – 23 February 2011

Radio Netherlands Worldwide – N. Koreans protest over power cuts: report – 23 February 2011

The Washington Post – Starving N. Korea begs for food, but U.S. has concerns about resuming aid – 22 February 2011

IHRDC Urges U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to Visit Iran

THE IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTATION CENTER URGES U.N. HIGH
COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS TO VISIT IRAN

February 22, 2011

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT – The Islamic Republic of Iran executed at
least ten people last week – at the same time its security forces were
brutally suppressing street demonstrations.  Two more were executed
yesterday.  The official and semi-official Iranian press reported that
all twelve people were executed for drug trafficking, a crime that
does not warrant the death penalty under international law.  Also
alarming is the fact that, amid calls for the execution of opposition
leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, the authorities placed
both men under house arrest.

The ten executions were merely the latest in a steady stream of
executions.  The Islamic Republic has always had a high rate of
executions – for many years it has held the number two spot following
only China.  While some executions are officially announced, many are
never made public, making it difficult to know the full extent of this
practice.  However, the rate of executions began accelerating last
fall to the point where in January 2011 alone, 79 people were
officially reported to have been executed.  At least 60 people were
executed for alleged drug offenses, one for apostasy, and four who
were charged with Moharebeh (“enmity against God”) for their alleged
political activities.

The executions are merely one piece of the regime’s concerted effort
to suppress all forms of dissent, real or imagined.  Although last
week’s demonstrations were some of the first to take place since
December 2009, the regime has spent the last year systematically
dismantling civil society organizations, arresting lawyers and
students, and shutting down communications within Iran and with the
outside world.  The government’s suppression of dissent, including its
shutdown of communications, together with the house arrests of
opposition leaders and the continued high rate of executions is
alarming in its broad scope and shocking brutality.

IHRDC continues to condemn all executions and calls on Iran to stop
further executions as they violate international human rights law.
Iran must allow Iranians the freedom to express their opinions, gather
together, demonstrate, and communicate both within Iran and with the
outside world.  IHRDC also urges the U.N. High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Navi Pillay to visit Iran and condemn the ever-worsening
condition of human rights in that country.

IHRDC is a nonprofit organization based in New Haven, Connecticut that
was founded in 2004 by a group of human rights scholars, activists,
and historians.  Its staff of human rights lawyers and researchers
produce comprehensive and detailed reports on the human rights
situation in Iran since the 1979 revolution.  The Center’s goal is to
encourage an informed dialogue among scholars and the general public
in both Iran and abroad.  The human rights reports and a database of
documents relating to human rights in Iran are available to the public
for research and educational purposes on the Center’s website.
www.iranhrdc.org<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?IranHumanRightsDocum/d7775b7424/09f1bf055e/e18fb495c5>.

For further information, please contact:
Renee C. Redman, Esq.
Executive Director
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
Tel: (203) 772-2218 Ext. 215,
Email: rredman@iranhrdc.org

Read Statement Online<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?IranHumanRightsDocum/d7775b7424/09f1bf055e/a439717611>

Tel: (203) 772-2218
Fax: (203) 772-1782

Email: info@iranhrdc.org<mailto:info@iranhrdc.org>

Belarus Sentences Dissident To Four Years In Prison Amid Criticism

By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MISNK, Belarus — On Thursday, Belarusian opposition member Vasily Parfenkov was sentenced to four years in a high-security prison for taking part in the mass protest following the widely-disputed re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in December 2010. Parfenkov was convicted of breaking a window at the parliament building during the protest. Parfenkov denies damaging any property.

Mass protests occurred after the December 19th re-election of Lukashenko, spurred by reports of fraud and vote-rigging by independent observers. Hundreds of people were detained following the protests, and opposition leaders were arrested and their homes and offices were raided. Parfenkov, who campaigned for opposition candidate Vladimir Neklyayev, is the first opposition member to stand trial. 37 other opposition leaders and 5 presidential candidates have been charged with inciting mass riots and await trial.

Parfenkov’s trial lasted barely seven hours and the prosecution alleged Parfenkov and others caused damage to the parliament building totaling about $4,600. The prosecution initially asked for a six-year sentence. Parfenkov admitted to taking part in the protest, but said he did not break any windows or otherwise damage the building. In addition to being sentenced to four years in a maximum security prison, Parfenkov was ordered to pay $4,700 to compensate for damage and his part in, according to the judge, a “lawless mob.”

Rights activists said they had almost no access to the trial proceeding because police in plain clothes used most of the 40 available seats. Vesna organisation chief  and rights activist Ales Belyatsky told the AFP that “[t]he court heard absolutely no evidence of there being any mass disturbances.” Belyatsky said, “[t]he accused admitted that he took part in an unsanctioned demonstration and pushed a wooden fence a few times.” Belyatsky further noted that “[t]hese crimes should be qualified as hooliganism [and h]e should have been sentence to 15 days in jail.”

In a separate development, the Justice Ministry revoked the license of four lawyers representing opposition activists for “gross violations.” The suspended lawyers are effectively barred from practicing their profession. The opposition activists who lawyers were suspended will now be represented by state-appointed attorneys. Garry Pogonyailo, a rights activists and former defense lawyer who lost his license, told the AFP that appointed lawyers “defend only formally, and very rarely show any enthusiasm.”

Parfenkov’s trial and sentencing has drawn sharp criticism from other countries and human rights organizations. The United States and European Union have spoken out against the continuing crackdown in Belarus, including shutting down human rights offices in Belarus as well as trying political prisoners. The US and EU have imposed sanctions, banning Lukashenko and 150 other Belarusian officials from 27 EU countries and freezing the assets of many officials. Poland has been particularly harsh in its criticism of the Lukashenko regime, and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Sunday that his “country’s authorities will most favourably consider requests for political asylum by Belarussians engaged in pro-democratic activities.”

On Monday, the UN High Commission for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, spoke out against the trial and sentencing of Parfenkov “for exercising his right to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.” Pillay indicated that the length and condition of the pre-trial detentions of the other opposition leaders awaiting trials do not comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Pillay’s office has also received continued reports of intimidation and harassment of lawyers, journalists, and non-governmental organizations in Belarus.

Pillay stated, “I have stressed before to the Belarus Government and I shall say it again: States have a duty to protect human rights defenders, journalists and civil society from threats, retaliation or pressure stemming from the legitimate exercise of their work in defence of human rights.”


For more information, please see:

UN NEWS CENTRE — Belarus: UN rights official speaks out against sentencing of political opponents — 21 Feb. 2011

WASHINGTON POST — Trials begin for Belarusan protesters amid criticism — 20 Feb. 2011

REUTERS — Polish leader offers asylum to Belarus opposition — 20 Feb. 2011

IRISH TIMES — US condemns Belarus trials and imprisoning of protester — 19 Feb. 2011

AFP — Belarus sentences protester to four years in jail — 18 Feb. 2011

WSJ — Belarus Sentences Opposition Activist to Four Years in Prison — 17 Feb. 2011

AFP — Belarus tries opposition, suspends defence lawyers — 17 Feb. 2011

BBC — Belarus dissident Vasily Parfenkov jailed for protest — 17 Feb. 2011